Herefordshire is one of sixty local authorities in line to receive more money for schools with effect from April 2015. The announcement came from the Department for Education yesterday, and was shared with colleagues at a meeting of the council’s Cabinet yesterday afternoon (13 March). Herefordshire Council has long argued that the funding it receives per pupil is unfair and one of the lowest in the country.

For example, the current national average is £4,550 per pupil, but in Herefordshire it is just £4,306. The council has lobbied the government for years through the F40 group. This year Councillor Jeremy Millar, cabinet member for children’s services, joined colleagues from other poorly funded authorities to meet ministers and MPs to discuss the impact of this inequality and lobby for fairer funding.

This followed a council motion in January that was passed and submitted to Michael Gove.The amounts of extra funding to be allocated vary across the country, but for Herefordshire it works out at an increase of 2.9 percent, or an extra £124 per child.

Cllr Jeremy Millar, cabinet member for children’s services, said: “We have fought long and hard to get the county’s school funding situation looked at and redress the existing imbalance. Although the government’s announcement still leaves Herefordshire children receiving less than the national average, it is definitely a move in the right direction and is greatly welcomed.

“The detail still needs to be drawn up, but for Herefordshire schools, this means an extra £2.6m a year, a significant amount which will be allocated to schools through the national school funding formula following consultation with schools in the autumn term.”